Pierre Huyghe UUmwelt - Annlee, 2024

UUmwelt - Annlee is a further development of a body of work, Of Ideal (2019-ongoing), that creates mental image based on captured brain activity of human subjects in cooperation with a machine-learning-based intelligence.

This work takes the fictional character Annlee as point of departure.

For Mental images of Annlee, neural interface has captured a subject's brain activity as they imagine Annlee, herself an imaginary character. From the activity, the neural network in turn generates a representation, bypassing all modes of expression such as language or the senses, the visual outcome is and is produced using a brain-computer interface. These images are reconstructions generated by a computer trained to generate 'mental images' based on the brain activity of human subjects it learned to read.

It is these attempts at reconstructing human thought that are seen on the screen. The sequence is endlessly modified by the conditions in which they find themselves: changes in light, temperature, humidity levels, the presence of insects, and the human gaze, trigger interruptions to the rhythm of the sequences.